DenaliBlues

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… only streak at night. Which has the added benefit of…

Bravo, Sirius! Congrats on your stellar quit.

Gnashed her teeth

…air-dry by streaking, instead. Although I am concerned about…

Lost at sea

7. Make a radio antenna

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Hi, Sandi. These are great questions. Quitting smoking can mess with your blood sugar (drive it down or up) as well as your digestion (which might slow down). So listen carefully to your body, support it with whatever fluids and nutrition it needs during the first crucial weeks of your quit. I am not diabetic, but I do have to be careful about extra weight. I found ice-cold sugar free and caffeine-free drinks (especially diet root beer) to be really helpful. I also used a lot of non-food things: aromatherapy inhalers, silly putty, fidget spinners, etc. Best of all, though, were small tasks to keep me busy. I kept a notebook of little house things that needed attention, and every time my mind or body yearned for a smoke I’d go cross something off the list instead of lighting up. Small stuff like wiping the schmoo out of the bottom of the recycling bin, or tightening a screw on a drawer pull. Distracting myself became a creative exercise. Plus my house was nice and clean for a while, LOL.

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Well done. What an inspiration!!

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You are doing so great, @Slow progress! I love that you're being real about the cravings and ups and downs, but have taken smoking totally off the table as a response to them. That's the foundation of a really strong quit. @Boo once said, "There are a million things you CAN do in response to a craving, and just one you can't - stick something in your mouth and set it on fire." Good on you for embracing all the other possibilities!

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Welcome to the forum, @Sandi149. I’m sorry you are struggling, but you have come to the right place for support. I, too, lost a 7-year quit once. I also tried to “wean” myself off of smoking. It didn’t work. I had to either smoke or quit smoking. Hovering in between was too excruciating. It’s that way because of how withdrawal works in the nicotine-addicted brain. By continuing to smoke - even “just” one or two a day - you never give your body the opportunity to get to the other side of withdrawal. You’re prolonging it without resolving it. I used NRT (lozenges and patches) and found that it worked for me. Oral or patch NRT is a much less gratifying delivery system than smoking. So it blunted the sharpest edges of my cravings while I made the initial transition to quitting. It helped me get through the first panic of not smoking. After a few weeks, when the NRT no longer reduced my edgy feelings, I knew I needed to break free of nicotine completely. It was hard, but by that time I had built up enough quitting skills to get through it. I know this is really scary. You feel like you might lose your mind. But that is your inner addict being all panicky about not getting its fix. Junkie mind tells us all kinds of lies. Here is the truth: You will not die from withdrawal. You’ll be jittery and upset and off kilter for a while. It will suck. But if you stick with it, it will get easier. Life is so much better on the other side. You can do this!

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You are doing SO GREAT, @Brioski!! You have really pulled through some tough spots and are making it through to the other side. Congrats, and so glad to have you with us!!

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Hi @Brioski. I, too, often hesitate to speak of my quit in terms of absolutes. Not because part of me is secretly planning to start smoking again. But because of the long shadow of lost quits in my past. I still have that failure stuck to my shoe. Also, my identity as a nonsmoker isn’t grown up yet. But despite all my caveats, this quit is the real deal! Like you said, @Slow progress, “…I won’t because I’m not going through this again!” In a colossal irony, my having a really rugged quit - all my misery and the cravings and the messy process of coming to terms with addiction - have sort of saved me from myself. If quitting were easier for me, I might not perceive the cost of relapse to be so daunting. But because quitting is terribly tough, I’ll be damned if I am going to throw all that hard work away. My freedom is hard earned, and I’m gonna guard it like a momma bear! And until I have a more comfortable identity as a nonsmoker, I’ll wholly embrace my identity as a QUITTER. A subtle difference, perhaps. But a distinction that helps me simplify all the weird head games that addict-mind wants to play. NOPE!!

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